Contemporary TV Console/Cabinet

We used to have an armoire-style entertainment center in our family room. It was beautiful but, despite being roughly the size and weight of a Mini Cooper stood on end, could hold only up to a 40”, thin-bezel, speakers-on-the-bottom, flat screen TV (and I had to remove its doors for that).

We wanted a lowboy/console-style TV cabinet, and looked at the local furniture stores. We didn’t really like anything we saw, and we didn’t want to spend $1000+ anyway. My wife sort of liked a cheap looking (to my eyes) TechCraft console at the local hhgregg store. (This from the woman who surprised me by not wanting to name our son Ethan Allen…)

No offense to any TechCraft owners who may read this, but I really didn’t want to buy that piece, so I started scouring the web for better options. I thought I found the perfect piece: the Oxford 72” console byAbbyson Living. It was a little wider than I wanted, and it was expensive, but it looked really nice. Then I looked at the dimensions of the side cavity doors—17.5” x 17.5”. If the doors are that size, the cavities are smaller—too narrow to hold the typical 17” wide (or so) AV component.

My hopes were dashed… Then I thought to myself, “I can build something like this with wider side cavities…” I had received a Kreg pocket hole jig for Christmas, and I wanted to try my hand at building doors and drawers, something I’d never done before. Five months of weekends and evenings later, here are the results. I’m happy with it, and my wife loves it, which is the most important thing.

The overall dimensions are 68.5” wide by 24.5” high by 21” deep. The side shelves are 19” wide x 17.75” deep, and the center shelf is 27” wide by 15.25” deep. (I sacrificed some depth for the center cavity so I could recess the back to accommodate a power strip. I also shortened the drawers front-to-back to accommodate a brick-style surge suppressor (the kind with two rows of outlets).